Galaxy Z Fold 2 Review - Folding King... But For What
**Saving Battery Life by Using the Outside Candy Bar Display**
I've found that using the outside display on my phone to be a great way to save battery life. It's just a weird usage habit that I picked up, but it seems to work for me. Your mileage may vary, of course. There are definitely people out there who will never want to use the outside display, and that's totally fine too. It can take some getting used to going back and forth between 60 hertz and 120 hertz, and adjusting to a weird aspect ratio can be jarring at first.
**The Benefits of Using the Outside Display**
For me, using the outside display has made a big difference in terms of battery life. I was surprised by how much more power I could get out of my phone when I used the outside screen more than I expected to. This is one of the reasons why the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is considered the king of foldable phones - it's got some amazing benefits that set it apart from other devices in its class.
**The Best Folding Phone on the Market**
Right now, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the folding phone to beat. It's got some incredible specs, including a Snapdragon 865+ processor and 12 gigs of RAM. It's also got wireless charging, which is a big plus for anyone who wants to be able to charge their phone without having to plug it in. The camera system on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is also incredibly impressive, with a triple-camera setup that includes a main sensor, a telephoto lens, and an ultra-wide-angle lens.
**The Best Screens of Any Foldable Phone**
One of the standout features of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is its screen. It's easily one of the best screens on any foldable phone, with incredible brightness, colors, and resolution. The display is also incredibly thin and bezel-less, making it feel like you're holding a giant piece of glass in your hand. The hinge on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is also incredibly well-engineered, allowing you to open and close the device with confidence.
**Software Tricks and Tricks**
Samsung has also done some amazing work with the software layer on top of Android, helping to improve continuity between the outside screen and the inside screen. This means that when you're using apps or taking photos, they'll look great on both screens without any awkward stretching or distortion. One of my favorite features is the ability to use the ultra-wide-angle lens as your selfie camera - it's a game-changer for taking photos.
**The Future of Foldable Phones**
Despite its many benefits, there are still some compromises that come with using a foldable phone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. The outside screen can be slightly worse than a normal smartphone because of its shape and size, and the inside screen is also smaller and squarer than you might expect. Additionally, the device is still quite expensive, with a price tag of $2,000.
**A Game-Changer for Anyone Looking for a Foldable Phone**
Despite these compromises, I think the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is an incredible device that offers something no other foldable phone can match. It's not perfect, but it's definitely one of the best options out there right now. If you're considering getting a foldable phone, this is definitely worth looking into. You'll get some amazing benefits like incredible screens, a powerful processor, and wireless charging - all for the low price of $2,000.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe year is 2020 it's september i just want to be the one to point out this is the third folding phone in a row getting a video what a time to be alive what's up mkbhd here and this is a samsung galaxy z fold 2 5g the fold 2 brought to you by optical flow of course and this is the only phone that folds that i can actually recommend any group of people actually buy in 2020 it's still expensive it's 2 000 bucks and it's still got its compromises the tech inside is still very young but this is the best one this is the king but for every reason out there that this is the king of folding phones there's another reason why you probably still shouldn't buy one yet a big part of why the fold 2 is so good is the hardware this generation 2.5 hardware here is the most evolved so this build even makes the previous galaxy folds look a little sloppy like it's boxier it's more squared off it's tighter the hinge is firmer and i still i love this satin finish and the brushed metal look of course it is truly samsung improving in a ton of places at once but also fundamentally it's still a kind of awkward galaxy fold form factor that we're used to there's still a gap between the screens when it's closed and it is still pretty thick it's still a chunky candy bar phone when it's closed which is a little awkward to hold and definitely a solid chunk in your pocket so it's a little give a little take but i think obviously the biggest change you'll notice the most impressive thing you will instantly recognize is the new screens both on the inside and outside they are technically speaking a massive improvement they are spec for spec everything you would have wanted them to improve but in use these actually also turn out to be kind of a win-lose so on the outside of course way bigger full screen corner to corner 6.2 inch cover display way better looking way more modern just a hole punch selfie camera up top clearly this is an improvement it's what we were all thinking when we saw the first fold when are they gonna fill up that screen and now they did but the funny thing is okay part of the dynamic of having that tiny cover screen on the old fold i've talked about this in the review is it's actually a barrier to entry to getting lost in your phone so if you just need to do something real quick like you get a text you want to reply or just change the song in spotify or just something real quick in the notifications you do that on the tiny cover screen and then you turn it off and you're done because you don't want to use the tiny screen very much but if you really do need to get something done then okay you got a galaxy fold you open it up and you use the main screen but now that outside screen is so big you can actually use it more often and it's not so bad you can kind of just use that outside like a normal smartphone it is a little narrow so typing is still kind of compressed and the aspect ratio is a bit odd sometimes with some apps but actually found myself one-handed scrolling through twitter or instagram or relay for reddit or just kind of burning time on the outside screen in a way i never would have on the tiny front screen before and now reachability is actually more of a problem because the screen is so tall now that it can be kind of hard to reach the top one-handed so weirdly what's happening is getting this way bigger better outside screen made me more comfortable just staying on the outside screen just hanging out on the outside like a normal phone which is a terrible habit to get into because clearly the inside screen is amazing this is where all the magic happens the main display here on the fold 2 is pretty much all win and this is what makes the galaxy fold so fun to use and such a king really it's bigger it's brighter bezels are smaller notches have disappeared and it's now bumped up to 120 hertz it's such a win that you know that you can carry around a screen like this in your pocket at all is awesome every time i unfold it i just kind of want to find something to do so i can keep using it it's so great the sad thing is the software experience mostly the app optimization is still catching up to this odd aspect ratio since it basically is a mini tablet and there is also now a setting in the fold too that lets you use tablet mode with some apps that support it instead of just big blown up phone mode so there's columns and everything now but a lot of apps still have trouble looking good on this squarish aspect ratio videos hardly ever fill it up unless you're watching a brandon havard video maybe there's also always huge black bars instagram and a lot of other apps are just kind of weird blown up phone versions even the camera viewfinder isn't quite filling up the whole display and that can kinda cheapen the experience but every once in a while there are some good apps where you turn it 90 degrees and you're in that columns mode and tablet mode like spotify or gmail and this thing becomes so great it's a productivity machine i was loving that i think a world where all my favorite apps have a version like that to take advantage of this display is going to be awesome it's just that's not quite the world the galaxy fold lives in yet and i also found something quite interesting with the battery so in making the fold my daily driver i was a little bit concerned i was going to pay attention to the battery right it's a bigger outside screen a bigger and 120 hertz inside screen and the battery's not seeing a huge bump up so i'm going to pay attention to battery right so i'm testing the phone i'm using it like every day and i'm starting to notice i'm getting to the end of days with more battery than i did on the old fold like i'm ending days with like 35 45 left and i was thinking about it and it turns out it's not because of some crazy optimization it's not the new specs it's not some bigger internal battery or some hack it was because i'm i'm using this smaller 60 hertz display so much more than i was on the old fold that i was actually saving battery that way so this is just a weird usage habit that i picked up of course your mileage may vary i think there's going to be people that get this phone and like never ever want to use the outside candy bar display and i totally get it it's it's kind of jarring actually going back and forth between 60 hertz and 120 hertz and such a weird aspect ratio but i'm just telling you how it ended up for me battery was improved because i was using the outside display more than i expected to so when you put it all together galaxy z fold 2 right now is the folding phone king it's the best folding phone in a lot of ways like it's got the best specs of any foldable that's for sure snapdragon 865 plus 12 gigs of ram it's the only one i think with wireless charging other than the z-flip it's got the best set of cameras in any foldable coming in pretty much around the same tier as galaxy s20 it doesn't have all the the super highest end features like space zoom or 8k video but it'll still do 10x zoom and it is still a triple camera with a main a telephoto and an ultra wide that you can also use as your selfie camera thanks to a software feature so you're going to deliver photos that are still very clearly very easily samsung flagship photos with all their hdr and bright and vibrant look which is great it's got some of the best battery of any foldable even minus my anecdote of using the outside screen more it's still packing a 4 500 milliamp hour dual battery and that's been more than enough for regular use and it's got the best screens of any foldable and maybe this is debatable but it's easily the best brightness colors and resolution an amazing thin bezel 2k 120 hertz amoled inside it's just so sick that you can get this in your pocket it even has the best fingerprint reader from my experience right on the power button it's got the best speakers i've heard in a foldable for sure and one of the best hinges now that they've tightened it up and given it a more confident feeling firmer hinge that can stay in place at multiple angles plus a couple software tricks to take advantage of it like special modes with youtube and the camera app if you can remember to use them they're kind of cool so thanks to samsung having the most iterations to work on this i'd say this is like 2.5 this is the king right now in 2020 but for what though like what does it mean to be the best thing in a category that most people should still avoid in 2020 right now like if this is the best we can do and this is the best screen in a foldable but you still have a pretty pronounced crease that the eye can still catch from various angles it's the king but for what if this is the best we can do with ultra thin glass but there's still a factory installed screen protector with the edges all the way around it that samsung tells people not to remove themselves but it's always going to collect dust around the camera cut out where you can clearly see they took a shortcut it's it's the king but for what if this is the best we can do with a confident well-engineered hinge that hopefully doesn't have any durability issues in the future and lets you feel like you have the most control over the phone and the software layer on top of android does as much as it can to help continuity between the outside screen and the inside screen but still 75 percent of apps look like a stretched awkward version of themselves every time you open them up it's the king but for what so even though this is the best folding phone it's also still super obvious that this is nowhere near the end of the line it's nowhere near mature yet first of all there's still compromises like the outside screen is still slightly worse than a normal smartphone because it's it's suit tall and narrow and chunky to hold and then the inside screen is also still slightly worse than a normal tablet because it's a little smaller and it's a little squarer and it has a crease and number two it's still expensive it's 2 000 bucks for that price it's always crazy to make comparisons but you could get an ipad pro and a pixel 4a and some sony noise canceling headphones and probably have money left over but there's something you get with the galaxy fold too that you don't really get anywhere else which is the most complete most evolved foldable phone so far that you can actually get and having all that stuff in one device that you can fit in your pocket that's a pretty sweet start thanks for watching catch you guys in the next one peace\n"